Jada Pinkett Smith is finally ready to talk publicly about ‘what has become known as “the slap hear round the world,” when she discusses the event and the aftermath of her husband, actor Will Smith essentially assaulting comedian Chris Rock during a live broadcast of the Academy Awards in March of 2022. The actress briefly detailed the before, during and after on her “Red Table Talk” show on June 1.
To open the show, Pinkett opened up about alopecia and the people who have reached out to her about their stories.
“This is a really important ‘Red Table Talk’ on alopecia. Considering what I’ve been through and what happened at the Oscars, thousands have reached out to me with their stories,” Pinkett Smith said. “I’m using this moment to give our alopecia family an opportunity to talk about what it’s like to have this condition and to inform people about what alopecia actually is.”
Pinkett Smith then addressed the Oscars incident.
“My deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out, and reconcile,” she said. “The state of the world today, we need them both, and we all actually need one another more than ever. Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we’ve done for the last 28 years, and that’s figuring out this thing called life together. Thank you for listening.”
The Academy suspended Smith from its membership for 10 years because of the slap. Rock has yet to address the slap outside of making small jokes about it on his stand-up tour. Smith later resigned from the Academy altogether.
